It's not enough that natural gas (LNG or piped-in variety) is getting pricier by the minute.
It's that you have the nerve to actually use it to heat your home, heat water, or heat food.
...In the wake of the 725-page “Inflation Reduction Act” (IRA), consumer choice for energy could be intentionally restricted to electricity by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Or at least that seems to be the plan. According to a petition submitted by environmentalists, EPA should regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions resulting from using natural gas in homes and businesses.
The eco-lobby has been emboldened by their “win” with the passage of the IRA. Never satisfied, their petition is one of the first attempts to expand it....
"Wait!! Wait!!", you say. Because you're a well-informed reader, you know that SCOTUS cracked down on EPA's authority to shut down the entire US regulate pollutants.
Yah--until the "Inflation Reduction Act."
So Watts Up asked a lawyer.
...Title VI contains a number of provisions instructing EPA to use its CAA authorities to reduce GHG’s. For example, Sec. 60107 directs EPA to use $18M to “to ensure that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are achieved through use of the existing authorities of this Act”. Also Sec. 60113 compels EPA to achieve methane emissions reductions under sec. 111 of the CAA that are at least equivalent or greater to what EPA recently proposed....
It'll wind up in court, again--unless President Trump does the right thing and obliterates EPA.
Meantime, you're not "safe." EPA is expressly permitted to charge fees/ton for methane emissions.
...At a minimum, these provisions provide an opening for EPA to regulate carbon and methane emissions. How wide of an opening is at least debatable and probably will be litigated (as Professor Parenteau anticipates).
This could result in CO2 and methane emissions regulated at the point of use (“point source”) as additional “criteria pollutants,” regulated because they are deemed harmful to human life.
What the environmentalists seem to be trying to do via their petition to the EPA is to make homes and businesses point sources for future regulation of carbon emissions. So why didn’t the environmentalists petition EPA to also target electric utilities? After all, electric utilities consume significantly more natural gas and emit more resultant CO2 than residential and commercial gas customers combined.
The answer is: That would not be consistent with the partnership that has developed between the electric utility industry and environmentalists to achieve their utopian goal of all-renewables-all-the-time. ...
There you go. They hit EPA on damn near the same day that "Inflation Reduction" was inked.
Surprised?
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